watermelon popsicles
by fluggerbutter
Summary: "I think I'll ask Saki to marry me."


It is on a sunny summer day, in the high heat of July, that Shougo offers up information unprompted. They are walking home with some groceries and early _conbini _dinner slung over their shoulders, and perhaps it's the watermelon popsicle melting in Yuki's hand, or maybe Shougo is just feeling particularly affable this afternoon, but either way it comes as a surprise when he breaks the silence.

"I think I'll ask Saki to marry me."

Predictably, Yuki stops short with a loud_, "Ehh_?"

Anticipating this reaction, Shougo keeps walking; Yuki bounds forward and fights to keep up and address the situation simultaneously. "But you aren't even dating!"

"Actually, we are. She just keeps forgetting."

"_What? _And you never told me or Kaori?"

"Stop waving around so much. You're getting ice juice on my uniform."

Yuki furiously slides the rest of the dripping popsicle off the stick with his teeth and swallows. "Why didn't you _say_ anything?"

"I didn't feel the need to. It was pretty obvious. Besides, you never brought it up."

"I brought it up plenty!"

"No, _Fujimiya _brought it up plenty. To Saki. She was too scared to ask me. And you just assumed I'd never get a girlfriend."

The blush spreads rapid-fire across his best friend's face. "I never said that—I mean, you're so cold—!"

"Mm," Shougo concedes. "But Saki's forgetful, so it works out."

"What do you mean?"

"If I say something frank, even if it offends her, she tends to not remember. And most of the time, she doesn't mind. I don't have many bad things to say about her, anyway. She's too dependent, but other than that, she's—"

"Wife material?"

The way he says it, it's a genuine question, not of the teasing kind, and it's Shougo's turn to blush. He turns his face away and mutters, "It's not like that. She's so clingy. I'm too much of a pushover to leave her, and if I'm never going to leave her, marriage is inevitable. She told me I should be her husband when we were _second years. _Might as well get it over with."

Yuki considers this, swinging his arms, filling the space between them with the sound of rustling plastic. "_Soudayo. _I guess you're right. But what about school?"

Shougo shrugs. "Since she doesn't seem to be going anywhere and neither do you, you can take care of her for me until I graduate and get a job."

"What?!"

His expression is continually deadpan. "You owe me. Also, it's your fault for not passing the entrance exams."

"Saki-chan didn't pass them either!"

"Which is precisely why I have to marry her. She needs a husband or she'll end up living at the train station. She'll forget to go to college classes, job interviews, dates... whatever."

"Will she stay at _our _place?"

"Sure, why not."

"Hey, when Kaori was about to sleep over that one evening you said we didn't have space to fit another person."

"I just didn't want you two whispering like schoolgirls the whole night. I need sleep, you know."

They turn the corner that marks the beginning of their street to find a tiny blue-haired girl attempting to shoo away the crows that have begun attacking the trash bags for the second time in two weeks.

"_Oiii_, Yamagishi!" Shougo yells. Saki pauses and looks up, waving both arms. The boys wave back. "They're going to pick her up and fly away with her if she keeps hanging around."

Yuki laughs. "I suppose she's light enough. Well, I guess I always kind of knew you'd end up with her. You're always helping her with things."

"She's short. She needs a lot of help."

They're close enough now that Saki raises her sleepy eyes and says, "I heard that, Shougo-kun."

The boys stop walking. "Doesn't make it any less true. Hey, you need to stop trying to fight the crows; they're going to eat you. Yuki will take care of it."

"_What_?"

"You've been using that word a lot lately, you know," says Shougo, taking the groceries from him.

"I'm too big for them to eat me," Saki says.

"No, you're not," Shougo replies. "Wanna come in?"

"Yes, please!" she says, as they cross the street and head for the apartment. "Is that food? Can I have some?"

"Yeah. Here, I bought you some Apollo Chocolate."

Yuki, still on the other side of the road, motions to the trash bags that are being steadily destroyed in spite of the green net flung over them. "Hey! You can't just leave me with these stupid birds—"

Shougo waves him off without looking back. "You're strong, you can handle it."

"Aren't you the one who keeps scolding me for what a wimp I am?" Yuki says heatedly under his breath before turning to drive away the increasing number of crows.

Shougo and Saki step inside the building. "I did give you our extra key to here," he says, pressing his wallet to the key card reader to get to the lobby.

Saki skips forward and pushes the elevator button. The little _up _arrow lights up orange. "Hmm, did you?" she says as she pulls back. "I don't remember. I must have lost it."

"Of course you did."

"You know how I am." She buries her hand in the slim box of mountain-shaped chocolate, the scent of strawberry candy filling the stuffy air. The air-con hasn't been working—they keep saying they're going to bring in someone to fix it, but it's been three days and it's still sweltering. "Got to eat it before it melts."

The elevator doors open. Once inside and destined for the third floor, he holds out his hand without looking at her. "Can I have some?"

Saki contemplates his hand, which is almost twice the size of hers, tilting her head. "Shougo likes strawberry? That's right, you do. I remember. Shortcake especially. Here you go." She tilts the box into his open palm and he downs the handful in one go.

"Wow, you never savour anything."

Yuki and Shougo's apartment is a small, one bedroom kind of deal. The kitchen is minimalistic, the living room just barely existent. The few pairs of shoes each boy owns are neatly arranged in the shoe closet just past the genkan.

"Want some slippers?"

"No, thank you. I don't trip as much in bare feet."

"Whatever you say. Here, the stuff in this bag needs to go in the fridge."

While Saki organises the groceries, humming, Shougo peeks into the tatami-floored bedroom. A futon lies in each far corner, one by the window, one by the wall; books and papers are stacked on one side and the other is strewn with diaries and practice tests. The closet built into the wall is half open. Shougo is the neat one here—Yuki is just barely kept in check, his clothes somehow always finding their way on the floor and onto his roommate's shelf. Once Saki moves in, there'll be no hope of order.

"So I'll take the couch and you can sleep with Yuki," he calls, his head still in the bedroom doorway, thinking about just how often he'll have to come in and clean.

"Why can't I sleep with you?" Saki says.

He leans back out and looks at her. "No space."

"Move Yuki-chan to the couch, then," she says, a matter-of-factly. "Can't cuddle with _him_, can I?"

"You could."

"You'd get jealous."

"I wouldn't."

"Fine, then, Kaori-chan would get jealous."

"Hm."

Yuki bursts into the apartment with the same unnecessary flare of volume and clumsiness that defined him in high school. "_Tadaima_!" he shouts as he tosses off his shoes. "I sprayed those dumb birds with mosquito repellent."

"You're crazy," says Shougo.

Saki glances back as Yuki enters the kitchen, half-empty grocery bags hanging off one finger. "_Ne, _Yuki-chan, my boyfriend's telling me to sleep in a room with another man, can you believe it?"

"Huh? Boyfrie—oh. Yeah, actually, I can."

"He wants me to stay in _your _room."

"What? No way, Shougo, you can have her."

"I plan to," says Shougo, eyeing his best friend. "Just not quite yet."

Yuki chokes a little on the empty popsicle stick still in his mouth. Saki pretends to be oblivious, quietly and unnecessarily pushing a bag of potato chips into the back of the fridge.

"I'm not sleeping with your girlfriend," he manages, before fleeing to the safety of their room to call Fujimiya and freak out for a while.

Shougo pulls out a chair at their tiny kitchen table and sits, too lanky for the smallness of the room, taking up too much space; Saki, meanwhile, fits the space like a pretty toy in a prettier dollhouse. She lets her weight fall against the kitchen counter, shaking her head.

"You mess with him too much."

He turns in the chair and crosses his arms against the back of it, leaning it forward until they are close enough to touch. "He lets himself be messed with."

She raises sweatered sleeves and holds his face in her hands, kisses him gently on the forehead. Sentimental as the motion is, he lets her. "Do you really want me to move in?"

"Of course I do."

"And do you really want me to stay with Yuki?"

"I'm not _that _heartless." He plays it off selflessly, when the truth is anything but: the thought of curling around her form every night, of holding her, of waking up next to someone warm and having that someone be _Saki_—his composure threatens to melt just to think of it. She is the only one who can thaw whatever frost he hides himself behind.

She wraps her arms around his neck, presses her face to his shoulder. "Thank you."

"Mm. Yamagishi?"

"Yes?"

"This chair is going to fall over."


End file.
